Welcome to the gardeners’ blog. We thought it would be interesting for the garden team to collectively reflect on 2022 and give you an insight into a year in Beth’s Garden.
As 2022 began, the main influence on the garden was still covid and we were shut over that winter not opening the garden to the public until the beginning of March.
January
The garden team were sad to lose fellow gardener Leanne who left our team to become Social Media Manager. Senior Groundsman Ben spent over a week battling to remove two large ash tree stumps in the Woodland Garden. They were cut down some years ago when they were deemed dangerous next to the path, hollowed out by honey fungus which is present in the woodland. Ben worked with a digger and ropes, and eventually called in our neighbouring farmer to take the massive roots and stumps away. Once they were removed, the garden team moved in to rectify the soil adding new top soil and compost to make it ready for planting.
Mid-January, we began rose pruning when Scott, our newest gardener returned after recuperating from a hand injury. He helped our WRAG scheme trainees Dan and Christa prune many of the shrub roses in the Reservoir Garden, while gardener Cathy experimented with staking and pruning a rambler along the grassy walk. Christa pruned the rambler on our tractor shed wall, a rose reserved for trainees to play with as it’s not in the garden and they can experiment to their heart’s content!
February
We began reducing some of our evergreen shrubs with new BCET volunteer Malin, including the large laurels (Prunus laurocerasus) in the Woodland Garden and several hollies in the Water Garden (Ilex aquilfolium). Although not the best time of year to prune evergreens, we find it suits our workload better and there’s a lot less chance of disturbing nesting birds.
One big pruning job was the bay tree in the Scree Garden (Prunus nobilis) which was not only getting too big for the space, but Head Garden Asa prefers a natural shape after pruning so a lot of material was taken out to loosen the structure up a little.
We gave the holly below the large old oak quite a reduction, and reduced the variegated hollies along the shady walk. This was quite a lot of work, and to our frustration, the carefully pruned holly in shade bed two was felled by a falling oak along the hedge-line during storm Eunice on Valentine’s Day.
It was sad to see one of the old oaks come down, but removing the holly and subsequently a few other shrubs has given us an opportunity to replant a large section of the bed. There are photos from the 1960s and 1970s where the shady walk feels very open, with views across the beds towards the ponds. Over the years as shrubs and trees have grown up and matured, obviously the view has changed. When the tree came down, it was nice to see the view opened up again.
March
In early spring, while bulbs are still emerging and perennials begin to show signs of new growth, there’s still plenty of pruning to do. This time of year, there’s a rush to get the Cornus, Salix and Cotinus pollarded. We do this to keep growth young for winter stem colour (Cornus, Salix, Acer negundo) and leaf size (Cotinus). We like to hold off doing this pruning until the first buds burst after the last of the frosts have passed. We also leave pruning the hydrangeas until now, and take out some of the winter-flowering Viburnum sp. stems once they’ve mostly finished flowering. Because we don’t irrigate, we have to be aware of promoting growth before the weather becomes too dry.
It’s not until now that we cut back last year’s growth in the Reservoir Garden, left over winter for interest, protection and to encourage wildlife. At the same time, we weed and thin out the drifts of forget-me-not that are such a feature later on in spring. Usually we mulch after this, to hold in moisture and supress weeds, but for some reason we didn’t this year, which is something we came to regret later on, as we shall see….
Something new the gardeners began was a plant ident in the visitor information centre, to showcase what’s looking good, and help our visitors identify what they’re seeing as they walk through the garden.
In mid-March, we were excited to see Carol Klein and her team filming a piece for Gardener’s World on spring colour in the Gravel Garden.
April
Planting began in earnest across all areas of the garden before dry and hot weather set in. In the Gravel Garden especially- we don’t like to plant after mid-May. This year, we had quite a few new areas to plant: the woodland beds that were prepped in January, some temporary planting in the Reservoir Garden, the canal bed in the Water Garden, and the Mediterranean slope near the house where a large conifer came out the year before.
At this time of year, we bring out the agave which have been protected from frost in the prop house over winter, and choose a spot for them to spend the summer in the Gravel Garden. These are the only plants we bed out, as Beth wasn’t keen on the idea of tender plants amongst the hardy perennials in the garden. However, she really enjoyed the contrasting structure the agaves bring to the airy planting.
A few years ago, the old wooden clinker boat that lived in the pond was finally retired and a new fibreglass one with wooden trim was bought to replace it. Each winter the boat is lifted out of the pond and then relaunched after the frosts. Before this, any renovation work that needs doing has to be done. This year, waterfowl had scratched through the varnish quite deeply so we all set to sanding it down, then Scott carefully varnished it.
May
As May begins, there’s a manic rush to catch up with all the weeding as spring growth starts with a vengeance. Our most visible weed at this time is Sticky Willy, aka Goose Grass or Cleavers, which goes from being an innocuous little shoot to a smothering mass of green in the blink of an eye. Nettles, Eyebright and other speedwells, as well as docks and alkanet all grow quickly in the warmth of late spring.
It’s also time to prune the earliest flowering shrubs such as Forsythia, Prunus tenella and Spirea sp. Shrubs that flower very early in the year tend to flower on the previous year’s growth, so the shrub needs to be pruned as early as possible after flowering to allow new stems to grow and mature.
Towards the end of May we deadheaded the hellebore Helleborus x hybridus to prevent them seeding everywhere, but we save the seed of H. argutifolius and H. foetidus for propagation.
We also start lawn edging at this time of year which isn’t everyone’s favourite job! We’re considering investing in a mechanised lawn edger so if anyone uses one already, please let us know how you get on with it.
Our wildlife advisor Dr Chris Gibson was excited when gardener Sally posted a photo of an insect that Asa spotted crawling up her back. It turned out to be a White-clouded Longhorn Beetle, of which there have only been three recordings on the National Biodiversity Network in NE Essex. The nearest in location (Highwoods in Colchester) appears to be a record from 1909!
June
At the beginning of the month, we were joined by Lizzie Pellowe from Shugborough National Trust for a week. She helped Cathy lift and reset bearded iris in the Gravel Garden.
In June, we pruned the mid-spring flowering shrubs such as Weigela sp., Deutzia sp., Spirea sp. and Philadelphus sp., taking out the flowered stems and thinning out weaker stems. Rock roses, Cistus sp also get deadheaded and a light prune if they’ve finished flowering, though this continues into July.
Although a little later than usual, Cathy, Christa and Scott Chelsea chopped a lot of the later-flowering perennials to make them sturdier.
As the water warms up and sunlight increases, a type of algae called blanket weed starts to bubble up to the surface of the ponds, clogging the flow and looking unsightly. From June until the cold air of autumn, we put on our waders and get into the ponds to remove as much of it as we can. However, it can grow up to 2m in a day so as you can imagine it’s an ongoing job throughout the summer. Depending on how thoroughly we’ve removed it, clearing every scrap from the silt surface where it grows, determines whether we need to repeat the process in three weeks’ time or sooner.
July
Hannah, our Beth Chatto trainee, had started her traineeship in May and had been working in propagation for six weeks. She finally got to work with the gardeners in July, just as the very hot and dry weather set in!
This was the driest July since 1935, with some of hottest temperatures ever recorded in the UK. Her first job in the garden was pruning cistus with Christa and the gardeners in the Scree Garden. Her favourite job however was clearing blanket weed in the ponds. With the hot temperatures we sometimes came in to work very early to miss the worst heat of the day, often clearing blanket weed at 6am.
At the end of July, we had a gardeners’ jolly, heading to Sissinghurst to see the Delos Garden designed by Dan Pearson. We met up with Saffron Prentice, the gardener who looks after it. She had come to work in the Gravel Garden with us the summer before Delos was planted up to see how we handle drought tolerant planting.
August
While the garden is planted to mitigate drought, the length of it, coupled with the unprecedented temperatures started to show in the garden. With Head-Gardener Asa on holiday, we headed to the Reservoir Garden which was looking particularly sad. Rather than chop plants back, we mulched like crazy, trying to screen the soil and crowns of the plants from the heat of the sun.
Because our borehole was low on water, we only spot-watered shrubs that were stressed, using trugs of water carried on the backs of the little electric vehicles we use.
This was basically our entire August. The usual maintenance regime didn’t apply as nothing was growing. Finally however, the drought did eventually break midway through August.
We also wanted to get the garden looking as nice as possible under these difficult circumstances because we would be holding the Beth Chatto Symposium in September and were expecting a lot of horticulturists and friends from around the world.
September
As the temperatures eased we began to finally prepare and clear shade bed two of perennials, bulbs and ground cover where the oak and holly were felled during Storm Eunice in February. The ground was parched and it took quite a few weeks of methodical digging to remove all traces of comfrey (Symphytum), bulbs and arums from the soil. The area was left to settle and returned to later in the year when compost was added – and will be revisited again in January to lift the remaining arums.
October
David Ward, the nursery director, had been researching environmentally friendly weeding methods for some time, and had been sent a hot-water weeding device from Finland, called an Ecoweeder. We began trialling it on the paths in the garden, with mixed results. We’ll be continuing the trials over the next few seasons to see how effective it is.
We were joined for a fortnight by Rory McDonnell from Audley End who wanted to work with us after his partner Susie Curtis had interned with us the previous year. We spent most of that time in the Gravel Garden editing self seeders like Verbena bonariensis and Stipa tenuissima.
Sadly this was Christa’s last month as a WRAG student. Having completed the RHS Level 3 practical before joining us, she’s now studying for the written exams next year and setting up her own garden maintenance business around the Kelvedon and Witham area.
The early autumn colours this year were incredible. Trees such as the golden larch Pseudolarix amabilis, Amalanchier sp., Koelreuteria paniculata, Ginkgo biloba and Crataegus persimilis ‘Prunifolia’ were especially stunning early this year.
November
As the beautiful autumn colours continued well into November we began clearing the area below Beth’s house. The trellis that screened her front patio had blown down during Storm Eunice opening up the space. The most difficult plant to remove was the Prunus tenella; a woody plant that sends out runners under the soil. Since the trellis had come down the prunus had spread a lot more than usual and was taking over. Happily we were able to use a lot of the material for propagation on the nursery. This is a project we’ll be returning to in the new year.
December
One of the main jobs for us in December is to finish all cutting back in the woodland before the snowdrops start to emerge in January. We don’t like to tread on the beds after December as the bulb shoots are often just below the soil surface and are easily damaged. Apart from cutting down perennials and ferns, we remove the old leaves of Helleborus x hybridus before the flower shoots and new leaves start to emerge. These leaves shouldn’t be composted because of a hellebore virus that can build up and be transferred through composted material. The leaves of the Corsican hellebore, H. argutifolius and the native H. foetidus are left alone as their growth habit is different. H argutifolius isn’t susceptible to the hellebore black death virus however, but the native H. foetidus is so once the flowers are finished any stems removed should be burned.
We also began cutting back fern leaves and perennials in the Water Garden. We’re moving away from our old approach of cutting all perennials back before Christmas which helps to prolonging the season of interest, leaving seed heads up for winter interest, and protection and food for insects, birds, small mammals, and amphibians. But in some areas where there are many early spring bulbs, we cut old foliage back so the bulb flowers are visible.
We experienced our first frosts early December, making it difficult to move through the garden as we try to stay off the lawns when they are frozen, which restricts where we can work, so we are often to be found in the Scree or Gravel Gardens if the ground is frozen.
It’s been an interesting year for us in regards to the weather, but we’ve learned quite a lot about managing the garden in high temperatures and drought, as well as how many pairs of socks to wear when it’s really cold! We have lots of ongoing and planned future projects for the garden so we hope you come and visit us in 2023 and see how they are coming along.
Written by Sally, Cathy, Scott and Hannah from the Garden Team.
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